Univ of Liverpool, IIT Kharagpur to jointly organise Heritage Fest in Chandannagar

Kolkata: A Heritage Fest is being organised in Chandannagar on November 25 (Sunday) by a project team consisting of members from University of Liverpool and IIT Kharagpur.

The Fest is a part of two-year project taken up jointly by the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) and the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) with an aim to protect and raise awareness of the rich cultural heritage of the cities and towns along the course of Hooghly River from Bandel to Barrackpore.

The Heritage Fest in Chandannagar will bring participants together from schools and colleges in this historic town by Hooghly River, and sensitise them about the value of the heritage of their town through an interactive event that will also see the deployment of technology. Through iPads, the school children will be educated on how to use a custom-made, free

smartphone app.

The app on the free-to-download Layar platform allows any location-enabled smartphone user in Chandannagar to point his or her camera at important houses and monuments and to see, superimposed or the actual real-time image, a historical image taken from the same angle of that place, ten, twenty and maybe a hundred and twenty years ago.

The image also carries attendant information about the heritage site. In addition, there will be various competitive events, such as drawing, debate and interactive quiz on Chandannagar.

Prof Jenia Mukherjee, the principal investigator on the part of IIT Kharagpur, said: "This will allow us to gauge how much information or awareness is already available on the ground and help us generate enthusiasm among youngsters about Chandannagar heritage." The event will also see the launch of a bilingual heritage resource book on the place — Chandernagore mon amour: the Citadel of the Moon, edited by Antara Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, West Bengal Education Services, and published by University of Liverpool.